Window blinds are commonly installed in office buildings, commercial businesses and governmental offices to for any of a variety of reasons. These reasons include regulating the amount of light desired in the office, blocking direct sunlight, increasing energy conservation and efficiency and providing for privacy. Blinds also tend to have a longer useful lifetime than other window treatments, such as drapes. Window blinds are also preferred by many home owners as part of the interior décor of the home.
Such window blinds typically consist of a plurality of slats in parallel, spaced-apart relationship. Some means is usually provided for controlling the angular position of the slats such that the slats may be angularly rotated between an open position, which permits the maximum passage of light through the blinds, and a closed position, which provides for maximum blockage of light through the blinds. Over a period of time, dust, particulate matter, and the like, accumulate on the blinds. Most undesirably, bacteria and pathogenic organisms may also be present on the blinds. Due to the large number of blinds, each with a plurality of slats, which may be installed in commercial buildings, individual cleaning of each slat, even occasionally, becomes a very time-consuming and laborious task.
Some prior art references have attempted to remove dirt accumulations on the blinds with a specially formed brush. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,574,415 to Vitonis discloses a dusting and cleaning brush with a plurality of finger-like brushes extending from a handle. U.S. Pat. No. 4,879,782 to Jacobson also discloses a hand tool for cleaning blinds with rollers retained on fingers. U.S. Pat. No. 5,400,468 to De Petra teaches the use of opposed rollers and is limited to cleaning one slat of the blinds at a time. Other prior art, such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,787,118 to Weiland et al. is concerned with a vacuum brush device with a plurality of elongated fingers that is connected to a source of vacuum. U.S. Pat. No. 4,718,141 similarly employs a plurality of finger-like brushes connected to a source of vacuum to remove dust from the slats of blinds. Such prior art is typical of the use of friction surfaces and/or vacuum to dislodge dirt accumulations on the blinds, but with limited success. For example, some dirt is too well adhered to the surfaces of the blinds to be removed with brushes and/or vacuum. Such cleaning devices and techniques are also generally unsuccessful where any greasy-type residues are on the blinds since any dust accumulations will tend to adhere to the residues. Such residues cannot be fully removed with friction and/or vacuum.
There has been a long-felt need for apparatus to more effectively and efficiently clean the slats of window blinds.
Accordingly, it is a general object of the present invention to provide a cleaning head for window blinds that cleans the slats of the blinds with a cleaning fluid.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a cleaning head for cleaning of window blinds that also removes excess cleaning fluid.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a cleaning head for window blinds that includes a plurality of fingers and in which the spacing between the fingers may be varied with spacing elements to adapt to the needs of different spacing between the slats of the window blind.
A further object of the present invention is provide a manifold with an internal divider to provide two chambers in the manifold, a first chamber for providing cleaning fluid to a plurality of fingers and a second chamber for providing a source of vacuum to a second plurality of finger for removal of excess cleaning fluid.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide an enclosed compartment for the cleaning of a slat of the window blind.